Welcome to the Shadow Realm
by Timothy D
Summary: We all know how the 4kids dub replaced consequences involving death with the Shadow Realm (often taking it to obnoxious levels). Well what if the Shadow Realm was worse than death? Discover the true horror behind the Shadow Realm.


Hello there, welcome. Now I know you're confused but all your questions shall be answered by the end of the tour. Now first, take a look around. Good. Now tell me what you hear.

Screams. That's all that can be heard. The screams of the tortured souls trapped in this wretched dimension. Let's take a look at some of the Shadow Realm's victims.

It's like space in that no one can hear you scream. Your physical body remains unharmed and in a coma but your soul and mind are tortured.

Our first victim is a large burly man dressed in all black. He wears a cap on his head and the hair on the side of his head is hangs down in spikes. His eyes are slanted and his pupils appear as little more than black dots. The letters P and K appear on the right and left sides of his jacket, respectively. The man's true name is unknown but he is known by his codename PaniK, the Player Killer of Darkness.

PaniK was a brutal, sadistic, and incredibly violent man. Hired by Pegasus, his job was to eliminate duelists during Duelist Kingdom. However, Panik often upped the stakes and made the game more dangerous than necessary. He used cords to bind his opponents by their neck and strangle them if they attempted to escape. He also was prepared to utilize flamethrowers in the event that he lost. Fortunately he never lost.

Until he lost to a young upcoming duelist by the name of Yugi Mutou. PaniK thought he saw the boy grow taller and heard his voice get deeper but convinced himself he was imagining things. This boy was the first of PaniK's opponents not to cower in fear of him. In fact, rather ironically Yugi exposed Panik as the coward he truly was. A coward who hid and attacked his opponent in the dark when they were weak rather than when they could fight back.

Taking advantage of PaniK's reliance on defense, Yugi defeated PaniK by turning his own trump card, Castle of Dark Illusions to destroy his monsters and wipe out his remaining life points. A sore loser, PaniK attempted to incinerate him, only for the boy to come out completely unscatched. The last thing PaniK saw before being banished to the Shadow Realm was the Eye of Wdjat shining on Yugi's forehead.

In the Shadow Realm, every waking minute he stands at the gallows, a tight noose around his neck. The Player Killer struggles in the binds around his wrists as cold sweats soaks him while he waits for the platform to drop. The platform beneath his feet opens, but rather than falling and having his neck snapped, he descends into never ending darkness. When he opens his eyes, his neck is back in a noose and he is again standing at the gallows.

Every once in a while, he manages to untie himself, but arguably the punishment is much worse. Flames shoot up from underneath him and begin incinerating him. The flames leap and lick at his flesh as his skin starts to blister and melt. The smell of his own burning flesh fills his nostrils. It isn't quick either. Finally though, after what seems to be an eternity the flames recede leaves his charred body to crumble into smoke ash. But just as before, when he opens his eyes and finds himself unscathed and back at the gallows.

Let's move on to our next victim, shall we.

We find a skinny man dressed in a red suit. He wears a black and blue stripped mask on his face and a red top hat on his head. This man is the once incredible illusionist/ magician Pandora/ Arkana.

Once a beloved and successful performer said to be the "greatest illusionist and magician since Harry Houdini himself," he lost everything when a magic trick went awry. A routine escape trick went wrong when the box exploded, permanently scarring his face. More concerned about his image and reputation, Pandora rejected the love of Catherine, his true love, causing her to leave him. Eventually he realized his mistake and began searching for her.

Unfortunately, his beloved would be murdered before he could reconcile. He never found out about Catherine's death and continued searching for her, slowly losing his sanity. Along the way, he took up Duel Monsters and eventually became attached to the Dark Magician card. As a duelist he took up the the new name Arkana. Eventually he came across a teenager named Malik who claimed he could reunite him with her if he did his bidding.

Desperate, he accepted Malik's offering without second thought. He'd do anything to be reunited with her once again. What Arkana didn't know was that this man was responsible for Catherine's death. Malik ordered him to find and defeat Yugi Mutou.

Arkana did just that, taking his opportunity to duel him during the Battle City tournament. He forced Yugi to duel him by shackling his legs while two buzzsaws came closer each of their legs. The lower their lifepoints got, the faster the blades would move towards them. These blades (Dark Energy Disks), rather than severing their legs, would banish their souls to the Shadow Realm.

Determined to win, Arkana took desperate measures. To him, his monsters served as nothing more than slaves. Dispensable whenever he deemed necesarry. He cruelly sacrificed them to summon more powerful monsters without a second thought. This led to his downfall as his monsters turned against him, giving Yugi the win. Yugi ultimately saved him from the dark energy disks as Malik revealed Catherine, or rather a doll made in her image. Whatever sanity Arkana had left vanished at that moment. Malik then banished him to the Shadow Realm.

Pandora's punishment is to be killed by the very monsters he betrayed. Over and over again, in the most painful gruesome manner.

Moving right along, here you see a man with crazy gray hair and snake like eyes. No one knows his true name so we prefer to call him the Rare Hunter. Similarly to Pandora, he was employed by Malik as part of the Ghouls, an organization that dueled unsuspecting duelists and stole their rarest card upon defeating them. Rare Hunter's trump cards were the five pieces of Exodia. In fact he even had 3 copies of each piece. Shame that they were counterfeits.

You'll notice in running gag in that all of our victims were defeated by Yugi Mutou. Yugi easily saw through the Hunter's strategy and removed three of the five Exodia pieces from play. The cheating bastard was quickly banished by Malik to the Shadow Realm.

What's his punishment, you ask. Like Exodia, he is cut into five pieces with each piece being chained and tortured individually. Not so bad right? If he somehow manages to put all five pieces of himself together, he escapes right? Not quite.

Every time he reassembles himself and breaks his chains, which is rare, he ends up standing before the Forbidden One himself and having to fight him. As you probably know, Exodia is unstoppable and an instant kill, meaning our Rare Hunter doesn't stand a chance. The Hunter is instantly reduced to dust by Exodia's "Hellfire Rage, Exodo Flame". He is then restored, cut into pieces and chained up again.

It appears we are running out of time so I'll introduce you to our final victims. The tall thin man with half a black and red mask on the left is Umbra, The Mask of Darkness. The pudgy short man wearing half a white mask is Lumis, The Mask of Light.

Not much is known about these two men other than the fact that, like Pandora, they were employed by Malik. Assigned to eliminate Yugi and Seto Kaiba, they bit off a bit more than they could chew. That's how they ended up here.

Umbra, since he wore the mask of Darkness is shrouded by the shadows. He hears the growls and roars of several feral creatures that inhabit the Shadow Realm. But he can't see them so he never knows when they'll strike. His own pounding heart gives away his location every single time. The last thing he sees are the creatures glowing red eyes.

Lumis, on the other hand, experiences the opposite. He is nearly blinded by bright white light. However, he can see well enough to make out several creatures resembling angels. These beings are no angels; far from it. They stalk Lumis, always appearing in the corner of his eyes. When they catch him, they impale his hands with the end of their wings. The 'angels' slice off his arms with his halo, followed by his legs. They follow it up by slicing open his midsection and wrapping him intestines around his neck. They look at his mutilated corpse before putting him back together to start all over.

Now I know what you're wondering, is there anyway to escape the Shadow Realm? Of course there is! For some, it's as easy as denouncing the evil in their hearts. For others, they must wait until the person who banished them to the Shadow Realm is defeated. And lastly, in the unlikely event that The Dark One is destroyed, all souls residing here shall be released. However, what are the odds of that happening? Besides, upon reentering the real world, the victim will have to recover from the mental and emotional trauma of their stay here.

Well that concludes our tour of the Shadow Realm. Hmm, what's that? Oh, that's right, you don't remember how you got here do you? Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that. Take a seat, after all you've got tons of free time on your hands.

**Hi there. I was watching the subbed version when I remembered how people often complained at how bad the 4kids dub of the show was sonce they removed almost all traces of death and replaced it with the Shadow Realm. And then it hit me; What if the supposedly family friendly Shadow Realm was much worse than death. Thus, this was born.**


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